Intergalactic Desire (5 page)

Chapter 4

Cassie eyed herself in the mirror, contorting her body so she could see herself from all angles. Her Landers uniform fit in such a way that she could have sworn it was custom tailored specifically for her body. The blue flight suit that all Landers wore hugged her in all the right places. Her breasts, which she had always considered moderately sized at best, seemed to bulge, and her stomach was pulled in tightly making her hips even more exaggerated. In the back, the uniform performed similar trickery. Jennifer looked on at Cassie in approval.

“It seems a little tight,” Cassie said.

“It's supposed to fit like that. The suit is designed to conform to your body. It keeps it from getting snagged on things when you go on the planet surface. Don't worry, it flexes and stretches as it needs to in order to provide optimum mobility,” Jennifer explained.

“You're suit doesn't squeeze you so tightly,” Cassie observed.

“I'm just Overwatch. I don't need that fancy material. This is just plain synthetic cotton,” Jennifer explained.

Cassie nodded in understanding as Jennifer led her to an open locker with a backpack in it. “What's this?” Cassie asked when they stopped in front of the locker.

“This is your locker,” Jennifer began. “Inside is your equipment pack. It carries all the gear you are going to need on missions. It's got your various scanners and readers and things, as well as all of your Medic equipment.”

“What happened to your last Science Officer?”

“Jerry was his name,” Jennifer said sadly. “He died on the last mission. He was taking soil samples and a superheated pocket of air exploded from the ground. Alice, our previous Medic, rushed over to help and the ground crumbled from beneath the two of them. They dropped into a river of magma below the planet's surface.”

“Oh, I'm sorry to hear that,” said Cassie softly. She had heard how dangerous this job could be, but that was the first time it really hit her. Knowing the names of the people who previously had her job and hearing how random and unavoidable their deaths had been drove home the point she was really risking her life.

“Anyways,” Jennifer said trying to lighten the mood, “that's why Jason gave you both jobs. He figures he can prevent losing two people in an accident like that if the Science Officer and the Medic are the same person.”

Cassie chuckled nervously. She couldn't quite tell if Jennifer was making a joke or if Jason really did assign her both jobs to prevent the loss of two lives. Either way, it was a dark way of thinking and Cassie hoped she wouldn't become so jaded in the course of her career.

Cassie, now fully equipped and ready to go, walked with Jennifer back into the main room. The rest of the Landers were seated around the table in the center facing the giant screens. Cassie and Jennifer found empty chairs and sat down. Jason, seeing the whole team was at the table, stood up.

“Alright, Landers,” he said walking over to the screens. “We are approaching an uncharted planet. As usual, we will go down to the surface of this planet and decide if it is fit for human life. Lars has already done the preliminary investigation with his drones. The atmosphere, water content and gravity level are all conducive for human survival. As for the other factors, I would like you all to meet Cassie Sterling.” Everyone sitting around the table looked at her and waved politely. “She is our new Science Officer and our new Medic. Now, hopefully we don't have a repeat of last time.”

Cassie swallowed. If that had been a joke, nobody was laughing. She began to worry that her double position was less about her skill and more of a life-saving measure cooked up by a cold commander.

“Before we gear up and launch out, we have one order of business. We have to name this planet. I believe it is Clark's turn to name it,” Jason continued.

“How about Novus?” Clark said after a moment of thought. “I want to name it after Ashley Novus, my girlfriend.”

“She's not your girlfriend, mate,” Jack said with an Australian accent. “Ashely Novus is that prostitute that hangs about in the engine room.” There was laughter from the other men at that remark.

“She is too my girlfriend!” Clark replied. “She just happens to be a prostitute. We all have to have a job.” Again, laughter from the men.

“Novus it is,” Jason said trying to bring everyone's attention back to the briefing. “We each get to pick a planet name and that's the rules, no matter how stupid or slutty the name is. Let's get to the shuttle. We got work to do.”

With that, the team stood up from the table and headed back to the locker rooms. Cassie was the last to stand up. Before she walked away she took another look at Jennifer. Jennifer could see the worry on her face.

“Don't worry, Cassie. Boys will be boys, but at the end of the day these guys are professionals and they're the best. Just do your job and try not to do anything stupid and you'll be fine.”

Cassie smiled, grabbed her pack from the floor, strapped it to her back, and headed toward the hangar.

Chapter 5

As she entered the hangar, Cassie got her first good look at the landing shuttle. It was blocky and black, with the words “The Raven” painted in gold letters along the side. There were four large engines in the rear that pushed the shuttle along and it was propped up on four legs. Overall, it reminded her less of a raven and more of a black robot frog. She walked past the rear engines and found a small stairway in the belly that led into the cabin. Inside the shuttle she saw two rows of seats with lockers against the walls. In the front was a single chair in the center of a large control panel for the captain to drive the shuttle. 

Cassie stowed her gear in a wall locker and took a seat. She didn't have to wait long for the rest of the crew to arrive. The first were the soldiers. They were suddenly very solemn, the complete opposite of what they had been earlier. Shortly behind the soldiers was Jason followed by Lars. As he boarded, Lars pressed a button on the wall which caused the stairs to retract and seal the cabin closed. Jason walked straight to the cockpit and sat in the pilot's seat. Lars took the seat next to Cassie, tapping her on the shoulder as he walked by.

“Nervous?” he asked as he buckled himself in.

“A bit,” Cassie admitted.

“Don't worry about it too much. Jason is the best pilot I've ever worked with and he's a damn good commander. If you do as he says, you will be fine.”

Lars smiled at Cassie and she took a deep breath. Lars' confidence in Jason made her feel better, but she still had knots in her gut. She tightened her seat belt and waited for the shuttle to take off.

“Lady and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking,” Jason said as he fired up the engines. “We will be leaving
Solaris
in a few minutes. Everyone buckle up tight and we will be landing on Novus before you know it. We know you have no choice of flights, but thanks anyway for flying with
The Raven
.”

With that, Jason flipped a switch above his head. Cassie heard the rush of air as the hangar sealed off from the rest of the ship. Jason flipped another switch and a set of large doors opened in front of the shuttle. Jason gently pushed the throttles and the shuttle lurched forward. Once they were outside in the emptiness of space, Jason slammed the throttles full forward and
The Raven
launched away from
Solaris
.

Cassie was breathless as she looked out the front window. For the first time in her life, she was outside of
Solaris
and in the vastness of space. She was swept away by the beauty and sheer size of everything in front of her. In the distance, she could see the planet they were heading for. It looked massive, at least 10 times the size of
Solaris
. 

“I remember my first time,” Cassie heard Lars say. “It's a lot to take in.”

“Yeah, it's kind of beautiful,” Cassie said without taking her eyes off the windows.

“It really is. You know what the best part is?” Lars asked her.

“What's that?”

“It never gets old.”

Cassie smiled. She could see by Lars' face he was in his late 30s or early 40s. He was handsome for his age, with his light wrinkles and sprinkles of grey in his dark brown hair. She felt a wave of happiness seeing someone who had done this job for so long still be amazed by it. 

“You know what else never gets old?” Jack said, interrupting Cassie's thoughts.

“Keep your dirty mind to yourself, Jack. She doesn't want to hear it,” Jason spoke up from the cockpit.

Before Cassie knew it, Jason was preparing to land the ship. There was a bit of shaking and bumping as they tumbled through the atmosphere and another bump when they hit the ground, but nothing Cassie couldn't handle. She was slightly disappointed the flight was over.

Lars unbuckled and pressed the button that lowered the steps. Cassie stood up and retrieved her gear from the wall locker. As she strapped the pack to her back, she saw the three soldiers remove their various rifles and pistols from their lockers as well as vests and packs full of extra ammunition and supplies. The soldiers were the first three off the shuttle. 

“All clear,” Eric called up. Lars stepped down off the shuttle followed by Cassie then finally Jason. 

“Mom,
The Raven
has landed,” Jason said into his wrist communicator.

“Copy that, Chief. Everything looks good from up here,” Jennifer responded from back on the ship.

“Alright everyone, gather around,” Lars said to the team. The crew formed a circle and Lars tossed a small cube into the center of the circle. A holographic map projected from the cube showing the immediate area. There were six red dots in the center of the map. “This is our area of operation. Nobody goes outside what this map shows. We don't know what's past this,” Lars explained.

“Jack, you and your guys form a security perimeter. Keep eyes and ears out for hostile natives. Lars, go with Cassie and help her out on her first landing. I'll monitor things from the ship,” Jason ordered. With that, Jason returned to the ship and the soldiers spread out. Cassie watched as everyone's respective dots moved on the map. Finally, it was just Cassie and Lars standing in the middle of the map.

“Alright, let's get to work,” Lars said.

Chapter 6

After a few hours, Cassie took her last sample from the test site. She put the soil in a test tube, sealed it and placed it carefully in her pack. Strapping her pack to her back again, she turned toward Lars.

“Thanks for helping me out,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”

“Not a problem,” Lars said. “How does everything look?”

“Not too bad. Air and vegetation samples seem to show humanity could live here. Soil seems a bit acidic, but might still be able to work. I'll have better data once I get everything back to the lab and run more intensive tests.”

“Good job, Cassie. For your first landing, you did very well,” Lars said patting her on the shoulder.

Cassie appreciated his praise. She started walking toward the ship when she heard a noise off in the distance. It sounded like someone falling and snapping branches. Her first thought was it was one of the soldiers patrolling the perimeter, but when she looked at the holographic map next to Lars she saw no other red dots near their location. She looked back up at Lars and saw he had noticed the same things.

“Get behind me,” Lars said stepping forward and drawing a pistol from his hip holster. “Who's there?” he asked into the bushes. “Step forward, slowly or I will shoot.”

“How do you know it speaks English?” Cassie whispered.

“I'm just guessing,” Lars admitted.

“Please don't shoot me,” a voice said from within the dense bushes in front of them. Cassie and Lars were both shocked.

Walking slowly forward into the clearing, a man wearing a Landers uniform appeared. Cassie and Lars were both confused by the sight of him. He appeared to be human, but had the same facial structure as Lars, along with his muscular build, but he also had Cassie's dark brown hair and bright green eyes.

“What the hell are you?” Lars asked it without lowering his pistol.

“Please don't shoot me,” the creature said again, but Cassie noticed he spoke without moving his mouth.

“I'm going to ask you one more time. What are you?”

The creature's eyes locked with Cassie's and she suddenly felt a wave of fear rush over her. However, she didn't fear the creature; she feared something else entirely. She feared Lars and his gun. She also felt lonely and sad, like she had lost something dear to her. Cassie stepped forward and stood between Lars and the creature.

“What is your name?” Cassie asked it.

“My name is Dahl,” it responded.

“What are you doing?” Lars interrupted.

“He's scared. Can't you see that? Lower your gun, he's harmless,” Cassie told Lars.

“Or he just wants you to think that,” Lars said keeping his pistol aimed at Dahl. “It could be a trap.”

“Trust me. He's just scared. And he's alone,” Cassie said. “Isn't that right, Dahl?”

“I am alone, but I am not alone. I am being chased,” the creature responded.

“What is it talking about?” Lars asked Cassie.

“He's the last of his kind, I think. Whatever wiped out his people is looking for him,” Cassie explained. 

“She is right,” Dahl said.

“How do you know that?” Lars was becomingly more and more confused.

“He's a Telepath. I read about them in University. It was theorized there is life out there that can communicate by transmitting thoughts and feelings to each other. I never thought I would actually ever see one,” Cassie said with her interest peaking.

“Okay, but why does it look like us?” Lars asked again.

“Active camouflage,” Dahl chipped in. “My species has evolved the ability to take on any form as a survival tactic. I adopted your looks in the hope you would not kill me. I am glad it worked.”

Just as Lars began to relax, accepting the answers to his questions, there was an even louder noise from the bushes. It was the crashing of a large group. Dahl looked terrified and ran behind Cassie and Lars.             

“It's the Grimmots!” Dahl shouted. “They found me!”

“I'm guessing the Grimmots are the ones chasing you,” Lars said. Seeing Dahl nod, he turned to Cassie and added, “Well, we should probably get back to the shuttle.”

“Are you going to protect me?” Dahl asked hopefully.

Lars started to say “no”, but Cassie interrupted him and said “yes”. Before Lars could argue, Cassie and Dahl began to run back to
The Raven
. Lars followed quickly behind them. While he ran, Lars announced on the communicators they were in danger and for everyone to return to the shuttle.

Once everyone was on board, Jason fired up the engines and slammed the throttles full forward. Faster than the speed of sound,
The Raven
was off the ground and heading straight up, back to
Solaris
.

“Mom, we ran into some hostile natives. We are on our way home. All crew members are accounted for, plus one extra,” Jason radioed to Jennifer as they took off.

“What do you mean by 'extra'?”

“You'll see when we get back,” Jason said.

Cassie could see everyone was staring at Dahl. She could almost hear the thousands of questions in their heads. She looked over at Dahl and could see he was also uncomfortable with all the stares. 

“I know what everyone is thinking,” Lars said addressing the crew. “I'll explain everything when we get back to HQ. In the meantime, just keep your mouths shut.”

“Lars, you know this is against Regulations,” Eric spoke up.             

“I know. We were in danger. Decisions were made.  I'll deal with the fall out,” Lars explained.

Cassie knew if Lars got in trouble for this it would be her fault. Lars wanted to leave Dahl behind, but Cassie made the choice to bring him along. She wasn't concerned with rules and regulations. She just saw someone who needed help and saved him without thinking.